Telegraph or cable code.



witnesses M. L. SWEENEY'.

TELEGRAPH 0B CABLE CODE. APPLIoA'rIo Hman un. 1o, 1909,

Patented Sept. '7, 1909.

Swanton oNrrEn srAfrEs .PATENT oEErCE.

MOETIMEE L. SWEENEY', CE NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOE or CNE-HALE rro CHARLES H.

TREAT, 0F NEW YORK, N. Y.

TELEGEAPH on CABLE CODE.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Mon'riMER L. SWEENEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Telegraph or Cable Codes, of which the following is a speciiication.

My invention relates to an improved cable or telegraph code, the primary object of which is to produce a code by which the tolls for the transmission of messages will be materially reduced.

A further object of my invention is to produce a code which can be made of a size suficient to cover all possible phrases which may be desired, and by my invention approximately seventy-tive thousand code words are provided and this without duplicating any code word. i h With these and other objects in View my invention consists in forming a code made up from words of two, three and four letters each, the words of two letters being arranged in one set or table, the words of three letters being arranged in a second set or table, and the words of four letters being arranged in a third set or table. These two, three and four letter words are adapted to be joined together to form pronounceable words of nine letters or less, and '1 also provide an index or key which consists of one or more letters adapted to be added to such compound word to indicate the particular combination of tables which has been employed to form the word to be transmitted.

Under the present international rules of the cable and telegraph companies any pronouneoable word of ten letters or less may be transmitted as a single word. Consequently under my system it is possible to send a phirality of code words joined together for which the toll for but a single word will be charged.

Referring to the drawings wherein I illustrate portions of the pages of a code-constructed according to my system, Figures 1, 2 and 3 indicate sections of the' three tables formed of the two, three and four letter words respectively; Figs. 4, 5 and 6 indicate sections of the key or index by which the particular combination of code words is indicated; Fig'. 7 illustrates a message comprising three code words taken from the Various tables with the indicator at the end Specicaton of Letters Patent.

Application filed April 10, 1909.

Patented Sept. 7, 1909.

Serial No. 489,236.

thereof, the same being ljoined together so as to be transmitted as a single word, and also showing a translation of such transmitted word.

As illustrated in the drawings, Table No. 1 is made up entirely of code words of two letters.' Table No. 2 is made up entirely of words of three letters, and Table No. 3 is made up entirely of words of four letters. By employing all the two, three and four letter combinations approximately seventyiive thousand diierent code words can be obtained, and this number is more than su'ilicient for all purposes. In the formation of the word to be transmitted these two, three and four letter code words will be joined together in various combinations, so that it is necessary, in order to properly divide the transmitted word into its component code words to have an indicator which will give the necessary information as to the number of letters in each code wordof the transmitted word, to enable the transmitted word to be properly divided. This information is given by the use of the letters which are added at the end of the transmitted word. Consequently each transmitted word ends in a letter which will indicate what particular combination of code words has been used to make up the transmitted word.

Tn the example given in Fig. 7 the table indicator is the letter a. Upon reference to the section of the index shown in Fig. 4 it is discovered that the first code word is taken from Table No. l, the second code word from Table No. 2, and the last code word from Table No. 3. Consequently the transmitted word is to be divided into three words, the first containing two letters, the second three letters and the third four letters. Vhen the transmitted word has been so divided into the three code words each is looked up in its appropriate table and translated.

If all the code words are taken from a single table then one of the indicators illustrated in Fig. 5 is placed at the'end of the composite or transmitted word, or if the word is made entirely from two tables one of the indicators shown in Fig. No. 6 is added to the composite word.

From the above description it will be seen that a transmitted word may contain four code words, and the index letter if they are all taken from Table No. 1, or three of them taken from Table No. l, and one from Table No. 2. Three code words if all of them are taken from Table No. 2, or one from each table, or two from Table Nok.- and one from Table No. l, and transmitted as' a single wor'd as each of these furnishes a word to be transmitted of ten letters or less, after the addition of the indicatoi` at the end of the word. lithout enumerating the equivalents and without setting forth all the forms which my invention may take, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A code which consists of two, three and four letter words, each of which has a predetermined meaning, said words being adapted to be combined int-o a pronounceable word and transmitted as a single word, and indicators adapted to be used with said two, three and four letter words to indicate the division of the transmitted word into the proper code words.

2. A code which consists of a plurality of tables one of said tables being composed of code words each containing one number of letters and another table composed of code words containing' av different number of letesame ters, said code words being adaptedto be c combined into a pronounceable word and transmittedl as a single word, and indicators adapted to be added to a word formed bythe combination of code words from said tables to indicate the division of the entire word into its component code words. n

8. A code which consists of three tables, one of said tables comprising a series'of tWo letter code words, the secondv table compris ing a series of three letter code words land the third table a series of four letter Vcode words, said code words being adapted to be combined into a pronounceable wordand trans'- mitted as a single word, anda series of indicators which may be added to a wordrformed from a combination of code words from the various tables to indicatefthe particular combination which has been formed.

In testimony whereof T aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

MORTIMER L. XVitn esses FRANCIS M. PHELrs, W. N. VVooDsoN.

SWEENEY. Y I 

